Chapter 10 - Debate
Motions debatable
Every motion moved in the Senate may be debated before the question on
the motion is put to a vote, except where the standing orders explicitly
provide that a question is to be decided without debate.
The following
motions are not debatable:
-
formal
motions (SO 66)
-
to
determine the postponement of business for which the senator in
charge has lodged a postponement notification (SO 67)
-
for the
first reading of bills, except bills which the Senate may not amend (SO 112(1))
-
for a
bill to be considered an urgent bill (SO 142(1))
-
for the
chair to report progress and ask leave for the committee of the whole to sit
again (SO 144(6))
-
that an
objection to a ruling by the chair requires immediate determination (SO 198(2))
-
for an
extension of time for a senator to speak (SO
189(1))
-
for a
debate to be adjourned (SO 201(2))
-
for the
closure of a debate (SO 199(1))
-
for a
senator to be suspended from the sitting of
the Senate, in case of disorder (SO 203(3))
-
for the
business of the day to be called on, moved during discussion of a matter of
public importance (SO 75(8)).
Committee reports,
on their presentation, are also not
debatable (SO 39). Special
provision for debate on committee reports is made by standing order 62, and committee
reports are also frequently debated by motions moved by leave.
Personal explanations
and explanations of speeches made in the course
of debate are not debatable (SO 190, 191).
Debate must be
directed to a motion, and without a motion there can be no debate. The only
exceptions to this rule are in explicit provisions in the standing or other
orders of the Senate which provide that debate may proceed without a question
before the chair, for example, on a matter of public importance proposed under
standing order 75.
Some motions are designed as vehicles for debate without calling upon
the Senate to make any decision, for example, motions to take note of
documents. Such motions, however, may be the subject of amendments which call
upon the Senate to make decisions (see Chapter 9 under Amendments), for
example, to endorse or repudiate the contents of a document.
Sometimes motions are debated together (see Chapter 8, Conduct of
proceedings, under Items of business taken together).
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